LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
DAVIS 


*  *  * 

This  is  an  authorized  facsimile  of  the  original  book,  and  was 
produced  in  1968  by  microfilm-xerography  by  University 
Microfilms,  A  Xerox  Company,  Ann  Arbor,  Michigan,  U.S.A. 

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CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON 


TWO  ADDRESSES 


BY 


EDWARD  WALDO  EMERSON 


^ 


AND 


WILLIAM  FENWICK  HARRIS 


BOSTON   AND  NEW  YOKK 
HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 


1912 


LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 


Emerson,  Edward  Waldo,  1811-1930. 

Charles  Eliot  Norton;  two  addresses,  by  Edward  Waldo 
Emerson  and  William  Fenwick  Harris.  Boston  and  New 
York,  Houghton  Mifllin  company,  1912. 

3  p.  1.,  (3j-53  p.     front,  (port.)     21im. 


1.  Norton,  Churlos  Eliot,  1827-11H)8.          i.  Harris,  William  Fonwick, 

18T.8- 

13—7025 
Mhrnry  of  Oongivss  1^2478.105 


CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON 
TWO  ADDRESSES 


-.. 


. 


CHAKLE.S    KUUT    KOUTON 


CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON 

THE  MAN  AND  THE  SCHOLAR 

AN  ADDRESS  DELIVERED   BEFORE  A  GENERAL  MEETING 

OP  THE  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  INSTITUTE  OF  AMERICA 

IN  TORONTO,  DECEMBER,  1908 

BY 
EDWARD  WALDO  EMERSON 


CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON 
THE  MAN  AND  THE  SCHOLAR 

MR.  PRESIDENT  ;  members  of  the  Archaeological  In 
stitute  of  America  here  assembled:-— 

You  have  honored  me  by  your  call  to  speak  to  you 
of  your  Founder  and  first  President.  "Dead,  yet 
living "  are  the  first  words  that  come  to  me.  Through 
eighty  years  he  strove  to  choose  at  each  parting  of 
the  wa>s  the  upward  path.  He  has  opened  the  eyes 
of  hundreds  to  see  it  through  the  fog  or  the  dazzle. 
He  has  awakened  many  in  fellowship  to  strive  to  be, 
as  he  has  boen,  a  Helper  and  Illuminator. 

Near  friends,  asked  me  not  to  make  a  eulogy,  but 
the  more  closely  I  have  looked  into  Mr.  Norton's  life, 
the  more  faithfully  active  and  brave  and  sweet  I  find 
it.  Yet  as  far  as  I  can  in  this  short  space,  I  will  let 
him  speak,  or  his  friends,  or  his  works,  speak  for  him. 

In  the  journal  of  Judge  Samuel  Sewall  is  an  entry 
written  in  the  seventeenth  century  telling  of  an  earnest 
discourse  he  had  with  young  John  Norton,  later  first 
pastor  of  the  ancient  church  in  Hingham,  Massachu 
setts.  I  wish  there  were  space  for  it  here,  for  those 
who  knew  your  honored  Founder,  gone  from  our 
sight,  might  see  in  this  brave  young  ancestor,  under 
utterly  different  conditions,  the  essential  traits  of  his 


4  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON 

descendant  —  a  questioner,  scrupulous  yet  hopeful,  an 
independent  thinker,  steadfast  American,  a  teacher  of 
the  Spirit  and  doer  from  the  heart,  Charles  Eliot 
Norton. 

His  grandfather,  it  is  said,  was  almost  driven  to 
utter  unbelief  by  the  dreadful  " Scheme  of  Salvation" 
taught  in  his  day. 

Andrews  Norton,  Charles  Norton's  father,  was,  in 
his   prime,    the   eager   yet   well-equipped    and  skilful 
champion  of  the  new  Unitarianism.     "He  believed," 
said  his  friend,  the  Reverend  Doctor  Newell,  "in  the 
Gospel  of  Christ  and  not  the  Gospel  of  Calvin  —  the 
gospel  as  it  came  fresh  from  Heaven  in  its  own  native 
beauty  and  power."     He  was  counted  an  able  theo 
logian,  an  exact  scholar,  and  an  accomplished  critic. 
Yet  he  was  withal  a  lover  of  nature  and  of  poetry, 
and   himself   ventured   on   the   slopes   of   Parnassus. 
During  his  careful  work  of  translation  of  the  Gospels, 
and  writings  on  their  genuineness,  he  corresponded  with 
authors  and  critics  abroad,  and  was,  for  a  time,  the 
editor  of  the  "Select  Journal  of  Foreign  and  Periodical 
Literature."    Removing    from    Bowdoin    College    to 
Cambridge,  he  was,  first,  tutor  in  mathematics,  then 
librarian    and    lecturer    on    biblical    criticism,    and 
finally  professor   of   sacred   literature.     He  fixed  his 
home  in  the  quiet  of  Shady  Hill,  long  before  the  in 
vasion  by  roaring  railroads,  and  irresistible  encroach 
ments  of  Boston  suburbs.    Though  formidable  in  the 
critic's  chair,  he  was  a  kindly  man,  domestic  and  hos 
pitable. 


TWO  ADDRESSES  5 

Madam  Norton  was  of  the  Eliot  family,  a  lady  of 
refinement  and  of  great  dignity  and  sweetness. 

Of  such  parents  was  born  a  son,  Charles  Eliot,  in 
November,  1827,  in  the  pleasant  house  in  a  sunny 
clearing  of  a  wood  of  pines  and  beeches,  his  father's 
home,  and  his,  until  his  death  nearly  eighty-one  years 
later.  It  was  a  home  of  the  best  type  of  New  Eng 
land  after  the  passing  of  its  austerity  allowed  its 
brave  and  kindly  virtues  to  shine  out,  while  its  sim 
plicity  remained.  But  three  years  since,  Mr.  Norton, 
in  a  talk  on  old  Cambridge  to  its  Historical  Society,  wel 
comed,  he  said,  "the  opportunity  to  express  my  piety 
.for  my  native  town,  and  to  say  how  dear  a  privilege 
I  count  it  to  have  been  born  in  Cambridge  and  to 
have  spent  here  much  the  greater  part  of  my  life,  and 
how  deeply  I  reverence  the  ancestors  who  have  be 
queathed  to  us « the  blessing  of  their  virtues  and  the 
fruits  of  their  labors. 

"The  society  was  of  exceptional  pleasantness  and  of 
pure  New  England  type.  Few  artificial  distinctions 
existed  in  it,  but' the  progress  of  democracy  had  not 
tswept  away  the  natural  distinctions  of  good  breeding 
and  superior  cultttre^  Its  informing  spirit  was  liberal 
aiid  cheerful ;  there  was  general  contentment  and  satis 
faction  with,  things  as  they  were.  .  .  .  The  house 
holds  were  homes  of  thrift  without  parsimony,  of 
hospitality  without  extravagance,  of  culture  without 
pretence.  The  influence  of  the  college  gave  to  the 
society  a  bookish  turn,  and  there  was  much  reading  — 
much  more  of  the  reading  which  nourishes  the  intelli- 


6  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON 

gence  than  in  these  days  of  newspapers,  magazines  and 
cheap  novels."  Every  one  was  then  interested  in  the 
Edinburgh  and  the  North  American  Reviews. 

The  boy  had  no  brothers  to  grow  up  with,  but  the 
blessing  of  three  sisters,  two  older  and  one  younger 
than  himself.  Hence,  and  because  of  his  delicate 
organization  (though  his  constitution  was  good),  also 
because  he  was  born  a  scholar,  he  did  not  have  so 
much  of  the  rough  and  healthy  playground  education, 
but  was  early  a  lover  of  birds  and  flowers,  and  ready 
to  settle  in  a  corner  with  an  imaginative  book  when 
he  came  in.  He  never  went  through  the  hunting  and 
fishing  epoch  of  a  boy's  life  —  except  in  books.  As 
often  is  the  case  with  such  boys,  he  was  given  to  friend 
ships  with  older  people.  He  tells  of  Longfellow's  kind 
ness  to  him,  a  boy  of  eight,  when,  as  a  man  of  thirty, 
he  came  to  live  near  by,  and  later  of  Lowell  as  a  dear 
friend  and  neighbor  in  their  youth,  quoting  Cowley's 
lines,  of  the  University  town  oversea :  — 

"Ye  fields  of  Cambridge,  our  dear  Cambridge,  say, 
Have  ye  not  seen  us  walking  every  day? 
Was  there  a  tree  about,  which  did  not  know 
The  love  betwixt  us  two?" 

The  Holmes  boys  were  near  neighbors;  the  lively 
Wendell  until  he  went  to  Paris  to  study,  and  John, 
shy,  humorous,  beloved,  for  life. 

His  sister  tells  a  pleasant  story  of  the  little  Charles, 
perhaps  ten  years  old,  which  has  the  flavor  of  a  child 
hood  of  other  days  than  these.  He  was  sick  with 
membranous  croup,  now  called  diphtheria.  Dr.  John 


TWO  ADDRESSES  7 

Ware  told  the  mother  that  he  had  known  but  one 
case  to  get  well.  The  child  himself  knew  that  he  was 
in  great  danger.  He  hoarsely  whispered  to  his  mother, 
"/  wish  I  could  live,  so  that  I  could  edit  father's  Works." 
He  did. 

He  went  to  day  schools  in  Cambridge  and  in  Bos 
ton,  and  entered  Harvard,  a  small  boy  of  fourteen,  — 
in  jackets.  As  his  delightful  home  was  but  a  half 
mile  off,  and  he  could  bring  his  friends  and  cousins 
there,  he  naturally  did  not  enter  far  into  ordinary 
undergraduate  life,  rather  convivial  in  those  days,  and 
less  athletic.  Classmates,  and  always  friends,  were 
Childs  and  Lane,  later  Harvard  professors,  the  first 
the  genial  man,  lover  of  Old  English  ballads,  the 
second  the  witty  and  exact  Latin  scholar.  Charles 
Norton  easily  stood  high  in  rank,  especially  in  the 
classics.  In  those  days,  Southern  youths,  of  attrac 
tive  manners  and  aristocratic  bearing,  formed  a  con 
siderable  fraction  of  every  class.  Norton  formed 
friendships  with  some  of  these,  and  because  of  this,  and 
familiarity  with  the  Southern  point  of  view  through 
his  summer  visits  to  Newport,  where  they  then  resorted, 
he,  though  an  antislavery  man,  was  less  early  and 
active  in  the  cause  than  Lowell.  Francis  Parkman 
was  a  college  friend,  and  after  his  return,  broken  in 
health  and  eyesight  from  his  recklessly  brave  experi 
ment  in  venturing  his  sickly  life  in  wild  adventures 
with  a  stone-age  people,  to  study  there,  Charles  Nor 
ton  helped  him  in  preparing  from  his  notes  his  admi 
rable  Oregon  Trail. 


8  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON 

It  now  seems  a  strange,  but  it  was  a  wise  choice, 
which  sent  the  young  Norton  away  from  the  library 
to  the  counting-room  of  a  Boston  firm  engaged  in  the 
East  India  trade.  But  it  is  well  for  a  scholar  or  a 
teacher  to  have  been  in  the  market-place  and  street, 
acquired  their  useful  drill,  and  known  their  tempta 
tions.  More  than  that,  the  three  months'  ocean 
voyage  to  India  as  supercargo,  the  contrast  between 
the  raw  university  town  and  the  drowsy  splendor  of 
the  ancient  East,  must  have  stirred  his  imagination, 
short  as  was  his  stay.  He  returned  by  way  of  Egypt 
and  Italy,  and  that  fair  land  began  to  throw  her  charm 
over  him  when  his  father's  failing  health  called  him 
home.  Then  (1852),  in  company  with  a  friend,  he 
went  into  an  independent  business,  —  cotton  perhaps, 
—  venturing  therein  a  legacy  that  had  come  to  him. 
In  a  year  or  two  all  of  this  was  gone,  but  he  left  no 
debt  unpaid,  and  withdrew  from  trade  with  honor 
and  experience  and  the  knowledge  that  his  call  was 
otherwhere. 

First  of  all  then,  he  acted,  happily,  as  Wordsworth 

says, 

"Upon  the  plan  that  pleased  his  childish  thought," 

and  edited  the  two  volumes  of  the  translation  of  the 
Gospels  which  his  father  was  finishing  when  death 
overtook  him;  also  he  gathered  the  miscellaneous 
essays.  It  pleased  him,  too,  to  print  a  little  volume  of 
his  father's  hymns  and  poems.  Some  of  these  last 
show  great  love  of  nature  and  close  observation,  one 
especially  on  a  New  England  ice-storm.  The  beau- 


TWO  ADDRESSES  9 

tiful  hymn,  "  While  thee  I  seek,  protecting  Power,"  was 
written  by  the  elder  Norton. 

The  hard  lot  of  the  helpless  poor  had  always  stirred 
his  father's  pity,  and  it  is  pleasant  to  find  that  one  of 
the  first  published  works  from  the  son's  pen  was  an 
article  in  the  North  American  Review  on  "  Improved 
Dwellings  and  Schools  for  the  Poor."  Beginning  as  a 
review  of  certain  English  works  on  the  subject,  it  did 
not  stop  there,  but  went  on  to  show  in  exact  detail 
the  shocking  condition  of  the  Boston  low  tenement- 
houses,  almost  past  belief  now ;  to  recommend  strongly 
a  board  of  health  and  sanitary  laws,  and  to  urge  the 
duty  of  all  good  men  and  women  considering  such 
neglect  and  suffering  as  calling  to  them  for  help.  He 
had  gone  to  the  pains  of  introducing  wood-cuts  of 
ground-plans  and  elevations  of  model  tenements  in 
England. 

Meanwhile  he  went  to  work  at  his  own  door  in  Cam 
bridge,  and  established,  or  helped  to  establish,  an  even 
ing  school,  the  first  that  had  been  there,  for  boys  and 
men,  who  had  to  work  by  day.  The  Irish  immigrants 
of  that  day  were  mostly  illiterate.  He  and  his  friends 
taught  these.  On  the  day  of  his  funeral  there  came, 
with  other  mourners,  the  mayor  of  an  important  New 
England  city,  who  has  been  kept  in  his  place  for  several 
terms  by  desire  of  citizens  of  all  parties  to  have  an 
honest,  efficient  manager  of  their  affairs.  He  was  a  boy 
to  whom,  while  he  was  driving  a  milk-cart,  Mr.  Norton 
had  been  a  friend,  and  whom  he  had  interested  in 
making  something  of  himself.  At  nearly  the  same 


10  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON 

time  with  the  evening  school,  Mr.  Norton  was  active 
in  the  Sunday  school  of  Dr.  Newell's  church. 

But  now,  for  a  season,  his  health  failed  so  far  as  to 
frighten  many  of  his  friends.  His  trouble  was  weaken 
ing  and  very  obstinate.  Yet  he  kept  cheerful  on  prin 
ciple  and  worked. 

The  following  year,  he  sent  forth  anonymously  a 
little  book  called  "Considerations  of  some  Social 
Theories"  with  this  text" from  Burke," — " Flattery  cor 
rupts  both  the  receiver  and  the  giver,  and  adulation  is 
not  of  more  service  to  the  people  than  to  kings."  In 
it  he  urged  on  us  Americans  —  as  he  has  faithfully 
done  for  more  than  fifty  years  —  the  duty  of  being 
watchful  for  the  dangers  that  may  beset  "our  brilliant 
yet  audacious  experiment  in  Democracy/'  and  of  not 
ing,  for  our  good,  pure  standards  that  were  set  up,  and 
examples  given  in  certain  great  respects,  even  in  lands 
afar,  and  centuries  long  past;  and  that  this  is  wiser 
than  to  look  only  at  our  fathers'  achievements,  and 
ours  thus  far,  and  blindly  and  extravagantly  boast. 

And  now  the  happiness  of  a  great  friendship  came 
to  him.  The  young  scholar  from  England,  Arthur 
Hugh  Clough,  with  the  best  fruits  that  the  Rugby 
school  life  and  training  and  the  Oxford  culture  could 
graft  on  a  manly  and  independent  nature,  —  a  poet 
too,  and  a  charming  man,  —  came  to  try  to  live  here 
by  his  scholarship.  He  established  himself  in  Cam 
bridge  and  brought  good  letters.  He  wrote  home  "I 
have  sworn  eternal  friendship  with  young  Charles 
Eliot  Norton";  and  soon  after,  "Norton  is  the 


TWO  ADDRESSES  11 

kindest  creature  in  the  shape  of  a  young  man  that 
ever  befriended  an  emigrant  stranger  anywhere."  He 
showed  Clough  the  blessed  condition  of  the  mass  of 
people  here,  their  freedom  from  poverty,  from  fear, 
from  oppression,  from  persecution  by  the  intolerant  — 
their  "chance  in  life,"  and  Clough  saw  the  contrast  to 
the  sad  condition  common  on  the  Continent  and  to  a 
great  extent  in  England,  so  much  that  he  was  partly 
sorry  to  return  when  a  good  position  opened  to  him 
there.  But  during  that  short  stay,  a  change  was 
wrought  in  Charles  Norton.  Clough  had  emancipated 
himself,  like  Arnold,  from  the  dogmas  of  the  Church 
of  England,  and  was  free  in  his  religion.  Norton  had 
gone  on  in  the  simple  worship  of  the  Channing  Uni 
tarian.  Now,  liis  religious  thought  was  awakened, 
stimulated,  broadened,  through  the  leaven  of  dough's 
influence.  He  was  ready  for  it ;  he  felt  no  shock,  only 
new  joy  and  beauty  in  the  inner  and  outer  life,  in 
realizing,  as  never  before,  that  "the  Spirit  maketh 
free."  No  jar  was  felt  with  the  belief  and  practice  of 
the  household.  To  him  it  may  have  seemed  that  he 
was  taking  up  his  father's  advancing  thought  where 
he  had  dropped  it,  and  carrying  it  farther  forward. 
Happily,  perhaps,  the  elder  Norton  was  gone  when  he 
came  to  express  his  belief,  for  each  generation  can 
advance  but  so  far  —  so  dear  and  deeply  sunk  are  the 
lessons  of  childhood. 

In  1855,  Mr.  Norton  sailed  for  Europe  with  his 
mother  and  sisters.  They  staid  abroad  for  two  years, 
in  England  and  Switzerland  in  summer;  when  cold 


12  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON 

weather  came,  going  to  Italy,  where  they  lived  mostly 
in  Rome,  happy  in  all  the  rich  gifts  she  had  for  them 
of  beauty,  and  of  companionship  with  the  living  and 
those  whom  we  call  dead. 

It  is  strange  that  one  whose  life  came  to  be  so  much 
occupied  with  Art  never  felt  the  personal  impulse  to 
draw  or  paint,  nor  had  he  in  youth  improved  such 
slight  opportunities  to  see  paintings  and  statues  as  his 
neighborhood  offered.  He  did  not  know  Allston, 
who,  during  Norton's  early  youth,  was  living  in  Cam 
bridge.  Later,  he  had  friendly  relations  with  Kensett 
and  Allan  Gay.  But  he  knew  the  woods  and  the 
meadows  and  the  daily  miracles  of  form  and  light  and 
color  that  Nature  works.  Through  the  young  artist 
Stillman,  and  also  through  his  mother's  reading,  he 
had  been  interested  in  Ruskin's  first  work,  the  Modern 
Painters,  and  through  Ruskin,  in  Turner.  He  modestly 
declined  a  letter  to  Ruskin  that  should  make  any  claim 
on  his  time,  but  gladly  took  one  asking  leave  for  him 
to  see  the  Turner  pictures  at  Ruskin's  home.  But  that 
good  man,  with  sympathy  not  cased  in  reserve,  most 
kindly  showed  him  his  treasures.  A  pleasant  account, 
but  erroneous  in  detail,  of  the  meeting  of  the  Norton 
and  Ruskin  families,  not  long  after,  on  the  Lake  of 
Geneva,  is  given  in  Ruskin's  Prccterita,  but  the  essence 
is  true,  that  a  helpful  friendship  and  strong  there 
sprang  up,  enduring  to  the  end.  These  men  had  the 
common  ground  of  noble  aims  earnestly  pursued,  deli 
cate  perceptions,  keen  love  of  natural  and  ideal  beauty > 
and  dislike  of  all  that  was  unworthy,  which  they  fear- 


TWO  ADDRESSES  13 

lessly  expressed.    Their  influence  on  one  another  was 
helpful;   each  gratefully  acknowledged  in  the  other  a 
teacher.    They  had  sympathy;    but  their  tempera 
ments,    gifts   and   experience   widely   differed;    each 
could  supply  the  other's  need.    Norton  was  nine  years 
the  younger,  but  neither  hq  nor  Ruskin  took  note  of 
that.     Norton's  study  of  Art  was  new.     His  friend  had 
from  childhood  pursued  beauty  in  leaf,  in  crystal,  in 
cloud,  in  man's  noble  or  devout  sentiment  expressed  in 
cathedral    or    in    painting.     Hence    for    his    younger 
friend  he  was  a  wonderful  guide  and  showman  for 
every  Italian  town.     Hear  Ruskin's  acknowledgment 
of  his  debt.     "  Norton  saw  all  my  weaknesses,  meas 
ured   all  my  narrownesses   and  from  the  first  took 
serenely,  and,  as  it  seemed  of  necessity,  a  kind  of 
paternal  authority  over  me,  and  a  right  of  guidance 
—  though    the   younger,  .  .  .  and    always    admitting 
my  full  power  in  its  own  kind;    nor  only  admitting, 
but  in  the  prettiest  way  praising  and  stimulating.  .  .  . 
To  me,  his  infinitely  varied  and  loving  praise  became 
a  constant  motive  to  exertion,  and  aid  in  effort;  yet 
he  never  allowed  in  me  the  slightest  violation  of  the 
laws,  either  of  good  writing  or  social  prudence,  with 
out  instant  blame  or  warning." 

Mr.  Norton  tells  of  Ruskin  that  he  admitted  it  was 
characteristic  of  himself  from  childhood  "to  be  inter 
ested  in  things  clearly  visible  and  present."  Mr.  Nor 
ton  said  to  him,  one  day,  that  when  looking  at  a  sunset 
he  was  altogether  forgetful  of  the  sunrise.  "  Yes," 
he  replied,  "but  to-morrow  morning  I  shall  care  only 


14  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON 

for  the  sunrise."  This  high-power  lens  of  his  vision, 
or  intellect,  or  conscience,  dimmed  or  shut  out  every 
thing  not  in  the  limited  field,  —  till  he  chanced  to 
look  elsewhere.  This  was  all  very  well  for  a  kitten  or 
a  child,  but  it  had  sad  consequences  for  those  who  in 
their  youth,  hungry  for  right  teaching,  had  accepted  this 
charming  idealist  and  writer  as  a  Pope  infallible  as  to 
art,  from  methods  of  drawing  to  the  virtue  or  sinful- 
ness  of  liking  the  paintings  of  Cimabue  or  of  Raphael. 

Norton,  with  all  his  respect  for  the  master,  had 
common  sense,  and  a  Greek  horror  of  the  overmuch. 
He  tried  to  check  his  friend's  impulse  to  rush  into 
weak  superlatives;  he  was  very  tender  of  him  and 
hated  to  have  him  criticised  by  others;  and  Ruskin 
frankly  said  Charles  Norton  was  one  of  the  "very  few 
who  have  had  the  distinct  power  of  the  training  little 
me  to  any  good."  In  sadder  days  for  both,  Norton  was 
to  be  his  best  stay  and  comfort. 

I  think  I  am  right  in  saying  that  Mr.  Norton  did 
not,  during  that  visit  to  Europe,  see  as  much  of  Ruskin 
as  in  the  later  yoars.  He  went  on  to  Italy  and  read 
there  in  his  books,  saw  pictures  and  churches  and 
palaces  with  Ruskin's  praise  or  blame  in  his  mind; 
but,  though  modest  and  glad  of  instruction,  and  sym 
pathetic,  he  had  the  old  New  England  blood  in  him, 
sat  at  no  man's  feet,  but  studied  and  thought  about 
what  he  saw,  and  made  up  his  own  mind,  yet  subject 
to  new  light.  Mr.  Norton  learned  the  language  of 
Italy  and  studied  her  history  and  poetry  on  the  spot, 
in  kindly  relation  with  her  people,  high  and  low.  The 


TWO  ADDRESSES  15 

spell  of  Dante  began  to  fall  on  him,  to  grow  stronger 
with  the  passing  of  the  years.  Not  long  after  his 
return,  he  published  his  "New  Life,"  the  Vita  Nuova, 
prose  and  verse  rendered  with  a  simple  beauty. 

He  had  now  regained  comfortable,  but  never  robust 
health ;  he  had  learned  much ;  his  outward  and  his 
inward  eyes  were  opened  to  natural  beauty,  and  the 
spiritual  beauty  of  which  it  was  the  echo  and  symbol. 
Ruskin  had  done  him  a  great  service,  Italy  did  more. 
Yet  he  did  not  wish  to  stay  there:  first  and  last  he 
was  an  American.  He  knew  that  his  countrymen  and 
wornon  needed  all  the  elevating  influences  that  he 
joyed  to  feel  working  in  him,  and  were  already  awaken 
ing  to  them.  He  had  no  conceit,  but  naturally  went 
home  to  work,  as  one  scholar  more,  in  a  community 
that  needed  such.  He  wished  to  do  his  part. 

Yet  he  came  home  when  a  cloud,  forerunner  of  a 
devastating  storm,  lay  heavily  on  the  supposed  inter 
ests  and  heavier  on  the  consciences  of  the  people.  He 
was  never  an  agitator,  and  War  seemed  a  calamity 
not  to  be  thought  of;  but  he,  like  his  father  before  him, 
believed  in  the  Higher  Law.  Yet  in  the  lull  before 
the  storm  an  event  happened  in  New  England,  a  sign 
of  promise  that  the  awakening  of  thought  and  taste 
and  spiritual  life  in  the  last  decades  was  to  find  ex 
pression;  that  our  literature  was  to  be  more  virile  and 
less  secondary  than  hitherto.  The  Atlantic  Monthly 
was  born  in  Boston,  with  Lowell  in  loco  parent  is,  in 
November,  1857.  Norton  was  one  of  the  contributors 
to  its  brilliant  first  number.  He  also  wrote  for  thp 


16  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON 

North  American  Review,  and,  later,  Lowell,  when  urged 
to  become  its  editor,  made  it  a  first  condition  that  Nor 
ton  should  be  his  assistant;  and  he  proved  an  active 
helper. 

In  1860  Mr.  Norton  produced  his  Notes  of  Study 
and  Travel  in  Italy,  an  attractive  book  to-day,  show 
ing  observation  of  history-in-the-making  as  well  as 
study  of  the  Past;  and,  as  always,  the  ethical  is  as 
marked  as  the  aesthetic  quality. 

The  guns  of  Sumter  shook  up  the  hot,  chaotic  mass 
of  discordant  opinion,  and  straightway  public  sentiment 
began  to  crystallize.     The  air  cleared  and  was  breath 
able  once  more.    And  people  found  war,  with  all  its 
terrors,  better  than  the  humiliations  and  suspense  that 
had  preceded  it.     Mr.  Norton  could  not  have  served  a 
month  in  the  field,  but  he  served  at  home,  and  well, 
all  through  the  war.     After   the   mortifying  rout   of 
the  Union  army  at  Bull  Run,  Mr.  Norton  wrote  in  the 
Atlantic  Monthly  on  "The  Advantages  of  Defeat"  to 
make  Northern  people  rightly  estimate  the  greatness  of 
the  problem,  and  feel  that  it  must  be  dealt  with  wisely, 
steadily,  and   bravely,  if   the  Country   and  the  cause 
of  Free  Institutions  were  to  be  saved.     Soldiers'  Aid 
Societies  sprang  up  in  every  town,  and  Mr.  Norton 
gave  his  personal  work  at  Cambridge;    also  to  help 
that    admirable    agency,    the    Sanitary    Commission. 
He  was   one   of  those   who  strengthened   the   hands 
of   our   noble  War   Governor,    assuring   him    of    the 
joy  of    all    good    citizens    in    his   service    in    having 
"kept  Massachusetts  firmly  to  her  own  ideals,   and 


TWO  ADDRESSES  17 

himself  represented  all  that  was  best  in  her  spirit  and 


aims." 


After  the  Peninsular  Campaign,  when  the  war  began 
to  drag,  in  August,  1862,  that  indefatigable  patriot, 
John  Murray  Forbes  of  Boston,  saw  how  it  would 
help  the  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war  to  collect 
clippings  from  all  sources  to  encourage  the  people  and 
the  soldiers  and  spread  doctrines  of  sound  politics, 
honest  finance,  efficient  recruiting,  the  dealing  with 
"contrabands,"  refugees,  and  spies,  and  send  broad 
sides  made  up  of  these  clippings  all  over  the  land. 
Mr.  Norton  took  charge  of  this  work  with  admirable 
helpers,  and  these  broadsides  of  the  New  England 
Loyal  Publication  Society  were  sent  out  once  a  week. 
Country  editors  gladly  availed  themselves  of  them, 
and  it  is  thought  that  they  reached  one  million  readers. 
Mr.  Norton  was  an  active  member  of  the  "Committee 
of  Fifty"  alumni  who  planned  and  carried  out  the 
building  of  the  Hall  on  the  Delta  in  memory  of  the 
Harvard  men  who  gave  their  lives  for  their  Country. 

In  May,  1862,  Mr.  Norton  was  happily  married  to 
Miss  Susan  Scdgwick. 

In  the  autumn  and  winter  evenings  of  1865-1866, 
Lowell  and  Norton  came  once  a  week  to  Longfellow's, 
at  his  request,  to  hear  him  read  his  renderings  of 
Dante  into  English  verse  as  literal  as  might  be,  and 
better  them  if  they  could.  They  knew  their  friend's 
sincerity,  sweetness,  and  modesty,  and  so  well  that 
they  obeyed  the  rule  given  by  Ecclesiasticus,  "And 
be  not  faint-hearted  when  thou  sittest  in  judgment." 


18  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON 

So  all  went  well,  and  his  work  was  helped.  "They 
were  delightful  evenings/1  said  Mr.  Norton.  "There 
could  be  no  pleasanter  occupation.  The  spirits  of 
poetry,  of  learning,  of  friendship  were  with  us." 

His  own  love  for  Dante  and  insight  into  the  deep 
significance  of  the  great  poem  were  quickened  by 
these  studies  with  his  friends,  and  the  demonstration, 
by  Longfellow's  magnificent  attempt,  of  the  difficulty 
of  rightly  rendering  a  subtile  line  of  a  poem  in  a  Latin 
tongue  by  a  line  of  a  language  so  largely  Teutonic,  made 
him  feel  that  he  must  translate  the  Divine  Comedy 
into  faithful  and  poetic  prose,  as  later  he  did  with  the 
best  success. 

In  the  summer  of  1868,  Mr.  Norton  went  to  Europe, 
taking  with  him  his  young  wife  and  little  children, 
his  venerable  mother,  and  his  two  sisters,  and  they 
remained  abroad  for  five  years,  at  first  in  Italy,  later 
in  Germany  and  England.  During  that  time  he  was 
in  close  relation  with  Ruskin,  by  constant  correspond 
ence,  when  they  were  not  together. 

The  first  three  years  of  Mr.  Norton's  stay  in  the 
Old  World  towns  were  most  happy  in  all  ways;  —  the 
family  life  in  pleasant  lands  and  far  cities,  alive  with 
associations ;  freedom  from  outside  duties,  so  exacting 
at  home;  the  sense  of  the  rapid  growth  of  his  power 
to  see  beauty;  the  increasing  love  and  reverence  for 
Dante ;  the  study  of  the  minds  and  aspirations  of  the 
men  of  the  Middle  Ages,  through  their  works,  and 
in  the  original  records,  which  he  diligently  studied  ; 
the  many  profitable  acquaintances;  —  all  these  made 


TWO  ADDRESSES  19 

the  days  pleasant.  But  this  was  to  change.  In  the 
autumn  of  1871  Mr.  Norton  took  his  family  to  Dresden 
to  spend  the  winter.  There  the  great  sorrow  of  his 
•life  fell  on  him  in  the  death  of  his  wife,  a  woman 
beautiful  in  all  ways.  She  left  to  him  six  little  chil 
dren,  and  love  and  care  for  these  were  to  help  through 
the  first  darkness  of  the  following  years.  Yet  tender 
ness  to  his  family  and  friends  seemed  to  be  but 
strengthened;  and  those  less  near,  who  visited  Mr. 
Norton  and  his  family  in  their  lodgings  in  England, 
found  in  that  temporary  home  from  which  a  light  had 
gone  out,  and  where  a  gracious  presence  was  missed, 
the  essence  of  a  home  still  there,  —  courage  and  kind 
ness  made  more  real  by  the  testing  they  had  under 
gone  ;  the  cheerful  lending  of  attention  and  sympathy 
to  others,  and  duties  done,  and  labors  bravely  pursued. 

Ruskin,  older,  more  restless  and  sadder,  was  there; 
for  that  which  was  unbeautiful  and  dark  in  life  now 
occupied  this  sensitive  soul  more  than  art.  These 
things  wrought  havoc  with  his  mind  and  conscience, 
yet  he  would  not  cease  from  manifold  studies  and 
works.  More  than  once  his  brain  and  body  gave  way 
in  the  succeeding  years,  yet  his  friend  soothed,  coun 
selled,  pleaded,  and  was  his  helper,  as  far  as  he  could  be 
helped,  to  the  end ;  but  that  did  not  come  for  years. 

In  his  earlier  visit  to  England,  Mr.  Norton  had 
formed  a  cordial  friendship  with  Mrs.  Gaskell,  who 
dedicated  one  of  her  books  to  him,  and  one  of  his 
daughters  bears  her  name. 

Mr.  Norton  found  a  new  friend  in  the  dreamer, 


20  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON 

turned  brave  worker,  William  Morris,  but  was  es 
pecially  drawn  to  Burne- Jones  by  his  earnest  and 
thoughtful  life  and  work.  His  old  friend  Stillman,  of 
versatile  mind  and  gifts,  painter,  woodsman,  writer, 
brave  friend  of  Greece  and  Crete  in  their  troubles, 
was  there.  But  for  the  first  time  Mr.  Norton  met 
Carlyle,  now  sad  with  a  bereavement  like  his  own,  and 
broken  with  age.  Carlyle  visited  him  when  he  was 
convalescent  from  pneumonia  and  wrote  of  "  Norton, 
a  man  I  like  more  and  more."  Again  he  wrote:  "He 
is  a  fine,  gentle,  intelligent  and  affectionate  creature, 
with  whom  I  have  always  a  pleasant,  soothing  and 
interesting  dialogue  when  we  meet,  —  the  only  fault 
yesterday  was  I  liked  it  too  well  and  staid  too  long." 

When  the  Nortons  sailed  for  home  in  May,  1873, 
Carlyle  wrote,  "I  was  really  sorry  to  part  with 
Norton  ...  he  has  been  through  the  winter  the 
most  human  of  all  the  company  I,  from  time  to  time, 
had.  A  pious,  cultivated,  intelligent,  much-suffering 
man.  He  has  been  five  years  absent  from  America 
and  is  now  to  return  One,  instead  of  Two,  as  he  left." 

But  in  those  months  in  England,  ill  in  body  and 
with  the  joy  of  life  broken,  his  sympathy  and  his 
quality  so  moved  Carlyle,  that  he,  later,  entrusted  to 
him  the  work  of  editing  his  Correspondence  with  Emer 
son,  a  duty  fulfilled  with  delicacy  and  exact  fidelity 
to  the  spirit  of  the  trust.  Mr.  Norton  felt  himself 
driven,  by  what  seemed  to  him  the  gross  violation  by 
Froude  of  his  dead  friend's  confidence  and  mandate,  — 
in  publishing  parts  of  letters  that  should  have  been 


TWO  ADDRESSES  21 

burned  and,  as  published,  were  damaging  and  mis 
leading,  —  to  overcome  his  reluctance  and  bring  out 
with  delicacy  and  conscience  just  so  much  more  of 
the  private  correspondence  as  was  necessary  to  correct 
the  mischievous  impression  of  the  really  loving,  but 
sadly  human,  domestic  relation  which  Froude's  want 
of  refined  perception  had  spread  abroad.  The  case 
required,  in  Mr.  Norton's  book  in  defence  of  his  friend's 
memory,  severe  plain-speaking,  which,  however  reluc 
tantly,  was  done  with  courage  and  dignity. 

Sad  and  sick  as  Mr.  Norton  was  during  that  stay 
in  England,  his  close  association  with  two  elder  friends, 
both  suffering  in  their  degree  from  their  own  griefs 
and  failing  health,  though  surely  depressing,  yet,  I 
believe,  wrought  its  good  result.  For  both  he  felt 
affectionate  pity.  He  let  in  rays  of  light  into  their 
dark  days,  and  that  comforted  his  own ;  and  he  saw 
how  unlovely  and  unhelpful  is  pure  pessimism. 

In  1873,  in  latter  May,  the  doors  of  the  ideal  home 
at  Shady  Hill  were  once  more  opened  to  sunlight  and 
to  friends.  This  must  have  lightened  the  shadow  left 
by  his  loss  on  Mr.  Norton's  mind.  Also  an  event 
occurred  which  proved  helpful  to  him  in  the  way 
natural  to  him  —  the  best  way,  helping  others.  The 
college  close  by  was  changed,  for  there  was  a  new 
President.  That  institution  had  offered  to  youth  a 
"liberal  education"  for  two  hundred  and  thirty-eight 
years,  and  had  created  Bachelors  and  Masters  of  Arts, 
but  the  Fine  Arts  had  had  no  recognition  except  by 
allusion.  Mr.  Norton  was  invited  to  give  some  lee- 


22  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON 

tures,  and  in  1875  was  made  Professor  of  the  Fine 
Arts.  Some  thirty-four  students  attended;  when  he 
resigned  in  1897,  the  attendance  had  increased  thir- 
teenfold.  He  ploughed  a  fallow  ground  and  sowed  it 
for  a  crop  sorely  needed.  Some  of  the  seed  fell  on 
stony  ground,  but  the  harvest  was  good,  and  many 
were  fed,  and  saved  good  seed-corn  from  which  har 
vests  elsewhere  in  the  land  were  to  spring.  The 
studies  of  the  old-time  compulsory  curriculum  used  to 
be  called  "The  Humanities,"  and  with  reason.  Now 
the  humanities  were  to  be  taught  to  greater  numbers 
than  by  Frisbie,  Everett,  Ticknor,  Longfellow,  Felton, 
and  Lowell,  and  with  a  freer  hand;  and  this  was  the 
more  important  as  the  opening  sciences  made  their 
claim  good,  and  popular  feeling  for  the  time  was  un 
favorable  to  the  classics. 

When  this  class  had  so  many  applicants  that  the 
lecture  had  to  be  given  in  Sanders  Theatre,  Mr.  Nor 
ton  entered,  looked  out  on  the  throng  of  students, 
and  began,  "This  is  a  sad  sight."  For  he  knew 
how  large  a  fraction  of  his  audience  were  idle  boys 
who  chose  what  they  thought  would  be  an  easy  course. 
"In  these  lectures/'  as  his  friend,  Professor  Charles 
H.  Moore,  said,  Mr.  Norton  "drew  aside  a  curtain  and 
showed  to  thoughtless  or  immature  boys  a  glimpse 
of  the  vast  hail  of  being  in  which  they,  or  their  ances 
tors,  had  constructed  a  little  hut  and  yard,  shutting 
out  its  celestial  dimensions.  Norton  knocked  a  breach 
in  these  walls,  and  let  them  see  Nature,  and  what  her 
beauties  symbolized,"  and  the  great  interpreters  of 


TWO  ADDRESSES  23 

these  as  living  teachers,  and  the  relations  of  Poetry, 
History,  Religion,  Human  Life,  and  Conduct,  to  Art. 

Mr.  William  Roscoe  Thayer,  one  of  those  students 
who  heard  him,  has  well  said  that  the  secret  of  his 
influence  with  them  lay  in  his  power  to  humanize 
knowledge;  that  the  fact  was  irradiated  when  shown 
but  as  an  example  of  general  law.  "The  pertinence, 
the  applicability  to  yourself,  of  whatever  art  or  his 
tory  or  nature  presents  to  you  he  unfolded  very  simply 
and  with  unforgettable  impressiveness." 

Young  artists  just  returned  saturated  with  the 
teaching  of  the  ateliers  of  Paris,  or  landscape-painters 
straining  after  the  truth  of  vibrating  atmosphere  and 
prismatic  coloring  in  nature,  are  apt  to  sneer  at 
•"Literary  Art."  But  the  scholar,  however  little  he 
knows  of  technique  —  secrets  of  the  craft  —  can  from 
his  training  look  on  art  as  having  been,  through  the 
ages,  a  measure  of,  and  an  engine  of,  civilization. 
Principles  and  motives,  alike  in  steamships  and  pictures, 
come  first;  details  of  structure  and  finish  important 
to  their  effectiveness,  second.  Mr.  Norton  treated  art 
as  man's  effort  at  expression. 

Let  me  give  a  few  questions  from  his  examination 
papers:  — 

Honos  alit  artes.     In  what  sense  is  this  true  or  false  ? 

Assuming  the  fine  arts  to  be  modes  of  beautiful 
expression  of  mental  condition,  what  is  the  meaning  of 
"Morality  in  Art"?  Consider  the  test  of  excellence 
afforded  by  choice  of  subject,  by  character  of  execu 
tion. 


24  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON 

What  does  Civilization  mean  ? 

Discuss  what  Plato  meant  by:  "The  man  was 
seen  to  be  a  fool  who  ...  measured  the  Beautiful  by 
other  standard  than  that  of  the  Good;1'  and  Goethe 
by:  "The  Beautiful  is  greater  than  the  good." 

And  it  must  have  been  with  a  smile  that  he  sub 
mitted  to  the  young  men's  consideration,  in  one  ques 
tion,  some  remarks  of  that  eminent  art  critic,  Dr. 
Samuel  Johnson  —  and  of  Ruskin. 

In  art,  he  bade  his  students,  not  to  imitate,  but  to 
follow  their  ideals,  though  the  world  call  these  illu 
sions. 

Mr.  Norton  opened  for  these  young  scholars  side 
doors  showing  vistas  into  the  remote  but  shining  Past, 
the  songs,  the  deep  questionings,  the  oracles,  and  the 
wisdom  that  men  had  won,  one  thousand  or  two 
thousand  years  before  the  scream  of  the  American 
eagle  had  been  heard.  This  gave  his  hearers  a  better 
perspective,  which  might  teach  them  modesty.  He 
showed  how  far  from  dead  the  great  are,  and  that  they 
are  wise  for  to-day,  since  humanity  is  the  same,  and 
the  great  laws  are,  in  Antigone's  words,  "Not  of  now 
or  yesterday,  but  always  were." 

The  teaching  was  ethical.  He  showed  the  sons  of 
poor  men  mines  of  spiritual  treasure ;  the  sons  of  rich 
men  the  responsibility  of  having  :  that  wealth  de 
manded  helpful  use,  and  leisure  unselfish  work;  that 
to  be  a  mere  dilettante  and  idle  collector  was  demoraliz 
ing.  One  must  be  a  worker  in  some  sort.  All  beauty 
is  allied.  "Behavior  is  a  fine  ar/,"  he  said.  Death  is 


TWO  ADDRESSES  25 

normal ;  what  is  to  be  feared  is  necrobiosis  —  death  in 
life  —  the  sin  against  the  holy  Spirit. 

In  many,  in  more  than  he  knew,  the  leaven  that  he 
put  into  the  lump  worked ;  the  ferment  was  good. 

Certain  criticisms  on  the  trend  of  American  activity 
and  expression,  purposely  made  very  strong  to  com 
mand  the  attention  of  the  young  generation,  and 
recalling  Ruskin's  sweeping  dicta,  naturally  excited 
dissent.  These  were  his  judgments,  perhaps  too 
severe,  and  fallible;  the  steady  lesson  to  the  class 
was  the  high  plane  of  thought  and  action  native  to 
the  teacher. 

And  many  young  hearers  carried  away  little  else, 
yet  that  was  worth  coming  to  college  for.  A  year 
before  Mr.  Norton  died,  I  heard  in  one  day  the  grateful 
witness  of  three  different  graduates,  now  in  full  tide 
of  useful  life,  to  their  debt  f  o  those  lectures  in  opening 
their  eyes  to  the  beauty  and  the  high  possibilities  of 
life.  A  lawyer,  writing  from  the  activities  of  State 
Street,  Boston,  just  after  Mr.  Norton's  death,  speaks  of 
his  instruction  as  the  " SOLID  acquisition"  he  carried 
from  college,  without  which  he  should  feel  himself  a 
"  poorer  man." 

But  Mr.  Norton's  relation  with  the  University  was 
not  only  as  a  teacher.  It  was  administrative  and  ad 
visory,  and  he  made  it  human;  for  he  was  one  of  the 
Faculty,  an  Overseer,  and  for  a  time  President  of  the 
Alumni  Association.  Coming  back  from  Europe,  where 
he  had  been  in  relation  with  the  scholars,  and  at  the 
fountains  of  Old  World  Culture,  he  was  free  from  pro- 


26  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON 

vincialism,  and  could  make  wise  suggestions  in  the 
now  expanding  University.  In  cases  of  misdemeanor, 
one  of  his  colleagues  has  testified  that  he  inclined  al 
ways  toward  mercy,  to  endeavors  to  tone  up  the 
boy,  or,  in  cases  requiring  seventy,  to  have  him  under 
stand  that  it  was  better  to  stand  his  punishment,  and 
see  what  good  he  could  get  out  of  the  occasion. 

Mr.  Norton  believed  in  athletics,  and  sometimes 
attended  the  games,  but  in  the  great  matches  was 
saddened  to  see  the  abuses  which  the  tremendous 
pressure  of  college  spirit  added  to  the  intoxication  of 
battle  wrought  there,  and  the  extent  to  which  they 
were  tolerated  by  students  and  by  spectators.  In  the 
interest  of  civilization  he  made  his  protest  against 
these  excesses,  but  with  very  limited  success,  for  the 
flood-tide  ran  too  strong.  Holding  the  faith  of  our 
fathers  in  true  democracy,  he  saw  how  heavy  a  re 
sponsibility  rested  with  our  universities  in  training 
youth  so  that  that  experiment  should  not  fail,  drowned 
in  inrushing  tides  of  ignorance  and  violence.  Games 
in  themselves  are  good  and  wholesome,  but  the  Uni 
versity  must  look  to  it  to  keep  the  concerns  of  the 
body  subordinate  to  those  of  the  spirit. 

But  outside  of  the  college  he  never  grudged  his  time 
and  help.  He  kept  interest  in  and  spoke  at  the  Pros 
pect  Union  in  Cambridgeport,  a  club  carrying  on  in  a 
larger  way  the  work  of  the  evening  school  where  he 
taught  in  youth.  Ee  was  glad  when  the  Harvard 
Annex,  afterwards  Radcliffe  College,  offered  to  girls 
the  same  advantages  that  young  men  enjoyed.  He 


TWO  ADDRESSES  27 

accepted  the  invitation  of  country  lyceums  to  their 
wintry  hospitalities.  He  kindly  came  to  our  little 
farming  village,  as  Concord  was  forty  years  ago,  to 
tell  us  about  Turner  in  our  Lyceum,  and,  unasked,  not 
only  brought  ten  of  Turner's  water-color  sketches  and 
bade  me  hang  them  in  our  public  library  for  a  week ; 
but,  hearing  that  two  or  three  boys  and  girls  had  tried 
to  copy  them,  wrote  "Keep  them  a  fortnight  longer." 
For  a  further  instance  of  his  great  generosity,  let  me 
record  that  once,  hearing  of  some  one  in  Portland, 
Maine,  who  cared  for  Turner,  he  packed  up  and  sent 
several  of  his  own  pictures  thither.  The  great  Port 
land  fire  came  and  destroyed  them  all. 

Mr.  Norton's  early  studies  in  art,  stimulated  by 
Ruskin,  had  been  devoted  to  the  beauty  which  the 
devotional  spirit  of  the  Middle  Ages  had  called  out  of 
stone.  But,  in  spite  of  the  debased  presentation  of 
the  Classic  in  the  Renaissance  buildings,  his  increasing 
knowledge  led  him  to  the  simple  yet  studied  beauty 
and  majesty  of  the  Greek.  His  professorship  led  him 
to  the  delightful  task  of  gaining  further  acquaintance 
with  Hellenic  art,  and  that  of  the  older  empires. 
Happily  for  us  in  Boston,  the  Museum  of  Fine  Arts 
was  established  soon  after  his  return.  He  was  from 
the  first  on  the  Board  of  Trustees,  and  his  influence 
throughout  was  for  most  liberal  expenditure  for  the 
best  objects  obtainable,  after  the  most  careful  con 
sideration.  The  educational  influence  of  the  Museum 
was  urged  and  welcomed  by  him.  In  a  letter  written 
by  him,  but  four  years  ago,  to  the  New  England  His- 


28  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON 

tory  Teachers'  Association  as  to  the  use  of  museum 
collections,  he  gave  this  timely  advice:  "The  risk 
of  study  in  a  museum  is  that,  instead  of  leading  to  the 
perception  of  beauty,  —  the  highest  object  it  can 
have,  —  it  is  too  generally  directed  to  merely  scientific 
ends,  that  is,  to  the  attainment  of  knowledge  about  the 
object,  instead  of  to  the  perception  and  appreciation  of 
that  which  makes  the  object,  in  itself,  precious  or 
interesting." 

Of  his  admirable  and  far-reaching  work  for  history, 
art  and  culture  in  founding  and  working  for  the  Archaer 
ological  Institute  of  America,  you,  gentlemen,  know 
more  than  I,  your  guest,  and  Professor  Harris  will 
speak  to  that  point  to-night.  But  as  one  who,  at 
fourteen,  dug  good  and  lasting  gifts  out  of  Felton's 
Greek  Reader,  and  forty-five  years  later  had  the  joy 
of  seeing  gleaming  in  Grecian  sunlight  the  marble 
exhumed  by  such  labors  as  yours,  let  me  render  thanks 
to  you  and  honor  to  your  first  President. 

Mr.  Norton's  feeling,  and  that  of  all  persons  on 
whom  the  Greece  of  the  Youth  of  the  World  has  laid 
her  spell,  was  expressed  by  John  Sterling  in  his  lament 
for  Daedalus,  by  which  name  he  personified  the  Art  of 
Hellas. 

Wail  for  Daedalus,  all  that  is  fairest, 

All  that  is  tuneful  in  air  or  wave ; 

Shapes  whose  beauty  is  truest  and  rarest 

Haunt  with  your  lamps  and  spells  his  grave. 

Statues,  bend  your  heads  in  sorrow, 

Ye  that  glance  'mid  ruins  old, 

That  know  not  a  past,  nor  expect  a  morrow 

On  many  a  moonlight  Grecian  wold. 


TWO  ADDRESSES  29 

Yet  are  thy  visions  in  soul  the  grandest 
Of  all  that  crowd  on  the  tear-dimmed  eye ; 
Though,  Daedalus,  thou  no  more  commandest 
New  stars  to  that  ever-widening  sky. 

Ever  thy  phantoms  arise  before  us,  — 
Our  loftier  brothers,  but  one  in  blood ; 
By  bed  and  table  they  lord  it  o'er  us 
With  looks  of  beauty  and  words  of  good.  . 

Calmly  they  show  us  mankind  victorious 
O'er  all  that  is  aimless,  blind  and  base. 
Their  presence  has  made  our  nature  glorious, 
Unveiling  our  night's  illumined  face. 

How  industrious  a  worker  Mr.  Norton  was  may  be 
shown  by  this:  that  in  the  twenty-two  years  during 
which  he  was  giving  college  courses,  —  often  six  lectures 
a  week,  involving  much  preparation,  —  he,  exercising 
meanwhile  a  wide  hospitality  and  with  many  public 
and  private  duties,  prepared  and  published  his  prin 
cipal  book,  Historical  Studies  of  Church  Building  in 
the  Middle  Ages,  his  Reminiscences  of  Carlyle,  and 
edited  the  Correspondence  of  Carlyle  and  Goethe  and 
that  of  Carlyle  and  Emerson ;  also  Lowell's  Letters, 
and  various  minor  works,  and  made  his  admirable 
prose  rendering  of  the  Divine  Comedy  of  Dante. 
Meantime  he  was  a  faithful  correspondent,  especially 
with  Ruskin,  and,  during  two  summer  trips  abroad, 
did  what  he  could  to  help  his  works  and  comfort  his 
friend's  later  days.  Also,  after  he  was  seventy-five 
years  old,  in  the  new  century,  Mr.  Norton  edited  the 
Memorial  of  Two  Friends  (Lowell  and  Curtis),  the 


30  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON 

little  book  on    The  Poet  Gray  as  a  Naturalist,  and 
finally  the  two  volumes  of  Ruskin's  letters  to  him. 

Speaking  of  the  first  book  Mr.  Norton  published, 
Studies  in  Italy,  Ruskin  said  that,  taken  in  connec 
tion  with  Norton's  Essay  on  the  Vita  Nuova,  "a 
more  just  estimate  may  be  found  of  religious  art  in 
Italy  than  by  the  study  of  any  other  books  yet  exist 
ing.  At  least  I  have  seen  none  in  which  the  tone  of 
thought  was  at  once  so  tender  and  so  just." 

Mr.  Norton  always  wrote  clearly  and  with  taste. 
His  rendering  of  the  Canzone  in  the  New  Life  keeps 
wonderfully  well  this  simple  charm,  and  even  in  the 
far  harder  task  of  translating  the  Divina  Commedia,  he 
avoids  pedantry  and  writes  with  simplicity  and  beauty. 
It  should  be  enough  to  quote  Mr.  Lowell's  statement, 
that  Mr.  Norton  wrote  "first-rate  English  prose."  To 
'him  one  may  apply  what  Lowell  said  of  Dryden,  "He 
wrote  as  a  gentleman,  rather  than  an  author." 

It  has  been  regretted  that  so  much  of  Mr.  Norton's 
time  was  taken  up  with  editing,  and  that  he  did  not 
leave  more  original  work.  "The  written  word  abides," 
—  yet  sometimes  merely  on  shelves.  What  he  did  was 
faithful  and  excellent :  the  spoken  word  goes  on  its 
way,  and  is  harder  to  trace ;  none  the  less  it  has  reached 
hundreds  directly,  and  we  believe  is  working  still. 

Mr.  Norton  was  happy  in  his  friendships.  That 
group  of  high-minded  poets,  and  writers  and  teachers, 
some  of  them  statesmen,  yet  all  humane  and  helpers 
in  their  day,  who,  in  the  last  century,  gave  standing 
to  our  country  in  the  world  of  thought,  and  raised 


TWO  ADDRESSES  31 

the  tone  of  our  people  in  a  great  crisis,  —  all  called 
Norton  friend.  Yet  he  was  not  a  disciple,  nor  too 
secondary.  He  was  among  the  early  members  of  the 
Saturday  Club,  then  a  brilliant  constellation;  but 
when  its  brighter  stars  had  vanished,  one  by  one,  still 
kindly  came  and  presided  at  the  table,  where  the  old 
members  perhaps  were  sadly  present  to  him  by  their 
absence. 

It  should  be  said  also  that  the  men  of  a  far  younger 
generation,  bright,  but  in  more  Bohemian  fashion  and 
with  less  restrained  deportment,  asked  him  to  be  the 
President  of  the  Tavern  Club.  He  accepted,  and 
ruled  the  wilder  feast  with  genial  tact  and  to  the 
pleasure  of  the  company  while  his  strength  allowed. 

Wherever  he  travelled  or  sojourned  abroad,  his 
courtesy,  his  culture,  his  kindness,  found  him  friends. 
At  home  the  bond  was  very  dear  between  him  and 
Lowell,  Longfellow,  and  Professor  Child;  I  think,  too, 
with  John  Holmes. 

Mr.  Norton  always  urged,  and  especially  for  Ameri 
cans,  the  quickening  of  the  imagination,  especially 
through  the  great  poets  —  "the  Imagination  which 
unites  us  with  our  race,  which  lifts  us  out  of  mere 
narrow  provincialism  into  our  share  in  the  eternal 
brotherhood  of  man."  He  urged,  as  the  three  essential 
books,  Homer,  Dante,  and  Shakespeare,  as  presenting 
respectively,  (1)  Homer,  the  natural  man,  dignified  and 
noble,  (2)  Dante,  man  touched  by  spiritual  interests, 
man  seeking  to  reconcile  the  difficulties  of  this  world 
with  an  interpretation  of  its  relation  to  a  spiritual  life, 


32  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON 

which  makes  all  things  clear,  and  (3)  Shakespeare  for 
the  truth  of  his  presentation  of  human  life  to  our 
knowledge  and  our  sympathy.  (I  do  not  use  his  words 
in  full.) 

But  any  story  of  Mr.  Norton's  life  would  be  sadly 
lacking  that  did  not  bring  in  Ashfield,  whither  he 
went  about  1869,  wishing  to  give  his  family  the  safety 
and  joy  of  country  life  in  the  summer.  On  his  return 
from  Europe  he  went  back  to  that  independent  little 
village  far  off  in  the  Franklin  hills.  There  he  estab 
lished,  not  a  summer  cottage,  but  another  home,  — 
feeling  that  he  must  not  use  the  town,  but  take  part 
in  its  lot,  and  be  a  neighbor.  Not  long  after,  the 
good  and  brave  gentleman,  George  William  Curtis, 
visiting  his  friend,  decided  to  make  a  home  there,  in 
the  like  spirit,  for  part  of  the  year.  Their  good  feeling 
and  wishes  were  met  by  the  people  of  the  town.  Their 
attitude  should  be  a  lesson  to  " summer  people,"  who 
talk  of  "natives,"  and  recalls  Tennyson's  picture  of 
Lancelot :  — 

Then  the  great  knight,  the  darling  of  the  court, 

...  into  that  rude  hall 

Stept  with  all  grace,  and  not  with  half  disdain 

Hid  under  grace,  as  in  a  smaller  time, 

But  kindly  man  moving  among  his  kind. 

Both  kept  a  warm  relation  to  Ashfield  for  the  rest 
of  their  lives.  They  lent  themselves  to  its  service  in  all 
ways,  and  once  a  year  at  a  village  banquet  drew  ad 
mirable  and  eminent  guests  thither  to  meet  the  Ashfield 
people. 


TWO  ADDRESSES  33 

Their  best  service  perhaps  was  to  incite  and  help 
them  to  revive  the  dead  Academy.  This  was  done,  and 
it  was  never  in  a  more  prosperous  condition  than  to-day. 

Two  months  ago  the  people  of  Ashfield  gathered  in 
their  town  hall  to  express  their  sense  of  what  Mr. 
Norton  had  been  to  them,  as  friend  and  helper.  They 
told  of  the  impulse  for  good  which  he  had  exerted  through 
the  years ;  of  the  Academy  and  Public  Library  revived 
and  bettered ;  of  the  Cemetery  Association  and  Village 
Improvement  Society  formed  through  his  influence; 
also  of  the  improved  roads  and  public  buildings;  of 
the  Children's  Fair,  his  suggestion,  where  each  year 
was  shown  their  handicraft,  done  at  school  or  at  home. 
They  spoke  of  the  annual  academy  dinners  instituted 
and  successfully  carried  on  for  twenty-five  years,  and 
over  which  he  gracefully  presided,  "  as  a  credit  and 
honor  to  the  town."  I  give  the  conclusion  in  their 
words,  which  I  cannot  better:  — 

"In  doing  all  this,  he  has  asked  the  aid  and  coopera 
tion  of  the  townspeople,  insisting  that  all  these  im 
provements  were  for  their  benefit,  and  worthy  of  their 
best  efforts,  thereby  creating  in  every  citizen  a  higher 
respect  and  deeper  love  for  his  native  town.  He  has 
been  not  only  a  public  benefactor,  but  there  are  many 
who  remember  his  quiet  charities  in  time  of  trouble  or 
need.  He  has  lived  very  unostentatiously  among  us, 
and  those  who  met  him  in  his  quiet  study,  and  listened 
to  his  genial  conversation,  and  his  plans  for  the  better 
ment  of  the  town,  learned  to  have  a  high  respect  and 
deep  love  for  him." 


34  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON 

After  George  Curtis's  death,"  Mr.  Norton  in  his  Me 
morial  Address  at  Ashfield,  in  1896,  said  these  words, 
which  well  might  be  spoken  by  another  of  him:  — 

"No  blessing  can  befall  a  community  greater  than 
the  choice  of  it  by  a  good  man  as  his  home;  for  the 
example  of  such  a  man  sets  a  standard  of  conduct, 
and  his  influence,  unconsciously  not  less  than  con 
sciously  exerted,  tends  to  lift  those  who  come  within 
its  circle  to  his  own  level." 

After  the  evidence  already  given  of  Mr.  Norton's 
words  and,  more  important,  of  his  acts,  I  hardly 
think  that  he  needs  defence;  yet  some  good  people 
misapprehended  him.  Certain  mannerisms,  certain 
strong  statements  taken  alone,  or  misquoted ;  stand 
ards  of  taste  and  public  duty  differing  from  their  own ; 
ignorance  of  his  underlying  kindness,  of  his  faithful 
work  and  earnest  concern  for  the  right,  led  them 
variously  to  suppose  him  a  dilettante,  a  carper  out  of 
all  sympathy  with  his  age  and  country,  even  a  pessi 
mist.  It  is  true  he  was  impatient  of  optimism,  being 
too  sensitive  to  the  evils  of  his  day,  public  and  private, 
and  the  dangers  already  looming  even  over  America 
as  results  of  low  standards  in  politics,  in  trade,  in 
culture,  in  conduct,  to  be  content  in  waiting  for  things 
to  work  out  right  in  secular  time.  He  felt  a  duty  to 
warn  as  well  as  work.  No  passive  railer,  but  a  scholar 
who  had  read  the  lesson  of  history,  and  knew  the 
wisdom,  never  outgrown,  of  the  great  spirits  of  the 
Past,  he,  in  his  day,  labored  for  the  right  with  tongue 
and  pen,  and  showed  its  beauty. 


TWO  ADDRESSES  35 

Our  general  of  noble  memory,  George  Crook,  said, 
"I  don't  believe  much  in  general  orders.  Example  is 
the  best  general  order,"  and  the  simple  living,  the 
hospitality  and  the  charity  of  kindness,  the  constant 
conscientious  work  —  this  unconscious  example  was 
the  best  of  Mr.  Norton's  teaching. 

Courteous  gentleman  as  he  was,  he  carried  the 
straight  and  keen  sword  of  plain  speech,  and  drew  it 
sometimes  a  little  suddenly,  but  honorably  when  he 
held  that  the  occasion  demanded.  At  a  notable,  well- 
nigh  stormy  Ashfield  dinner,  when,  during  the  recent 
wars  which  were  to  him  abhorrent,  a  subtle  change 
was  being  wrought  in  the  traditions  and  course  of  the 
United  States,  and  the  journals  praised  the  President 
for  "keeping  his  ear  to  the  ground,"  Mr.  Norton,  in  a 
brave  but  unpopular  speech  thus  commented,  — 
"  Surely  not  the  attitude  most  favorable  to  catch  the 
message  from  on  high." 

He  said,  "There  was  never  a  land  that  better  de 
served  the  love  of  her  people  than  America,"  but  he 
was  as  far  as  possible  from  the  "Our  Country,  right 
or  wrong"  stripe  of  patriot.  When  he  held  that,  at 
the  parting  of  the  ways,  we  had  taken  the  first  irre 
trievable  step  wrong,  he  called  on  the  rising  generation 
to  stand,  none  the  less,  for  the  right;  and,  pessimist 
as  he  was  called,  yet  could  end  his  speech  with  Nil 
desperandum  de  Republica. 

Far  back  in  the  darkest  period  of  the  Civil  War, 
when  the  interference  of  England  and  France  was  im 
minent,  Lowell  wrote  for  the  Atlantic  "The  Washers 


36  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON 

of  the  Shroud."  In  a  letter  to  Norton  he  tells  that 
he  was  in  his  thought  while  writing,  partly  because  of 
the  suggestion,  coming  from  a  Breton  legend  shown 
him  by  Norton,  but  mainly  I  think,  as  knowing  his 
friend's  keen  anxiety  that  its  own  right  action  should 
save  the  country.  In  a  vision  the  poet  comes  on  the 
Fates  washing  a  shroud  new-woven  for  the  country 
that  shall  deserve  its  doom.  They  seem  to  doubt  the 
destiny  of  our  republic,  and  chant,  — 

Three  roots  bear  up  dominion,  —  Knowledge,  Will,  — 

These  twain  are  strong,  but  stronger  yet  the  third, 

Obedience ;  'tis  the  great  tap-root  that  still, 

Knit  round  the  rock  of  Duty,  is  not  stirred, 

Though  Heaven's  loosed  tempests  spend  their  utmost  skill. 

Rough  are  the  steps,  slow  hewn  in  flintiest  rock 
States  climb  to  power  by :  slippery  those  with  gold 
Down  which  they  stumble  to  eternal  mock. 
No  chafferer's  hand  shall  long  the  sceptre  hold 
Who,  given  a  Fate  to  shape,  would  sell  the  block. 

But  Mr.  Norton  was  brave  in  his  ideal  patriotism, 
although  at  one  time  much  obloquy  was  heaped  on 
him.  He  did  not  retaliate.  His  position  vvas  secure; 
as  he  once  wrote,  "  However  dark  the  skies,  the  lover 
of  justice  and  peace  knows  that  the  stars  are  with 
him." 

Though  he  could  not  hold  to  the  simple  faith  of  his 
fathers,  through  life  Mr.  Norton  strove  to  keep  the 
spiritual  in  view.  One  who  knew  him  intimately 
said,  "His  appreciation  of  things  lovely  never  at  all 
blinded  him  to  the  deeper  significance  of  life.  He 


TWO  ADDRESSES  37 

said  that  the  moral  issue  was  not  in  the  least  connected 
with  theology  or  dogma/' 

He  treated  all  legends  handed  down  by  earnest 
believers,  in  whatever  religion,  with  tenderness.  At 
the  celebration  of  the  two  hundredth  anniversary  of 
his  ancestor's  church  in  Hingham,  he  said :  — - 

"A  continuous  spiritual  life  runs  through  the  cen 
turies,  and  here  its  continuity  is  most  deeply  felt,  for 
here,  in  each  generation,  have  high  ideals  been 
quickened,  pure  resolves  animated,  and  all  that  was 
best  in  the  hearts  and  souls  of  the  men  and  women 
.  .  .  cherished,  strengthened  and  confirmed." 

"The  path  of  duty  .  .  .  trodden  by  the  common 
men  and  women  of  every  period,  is  the  thread  of  light 
running  unbroken  through  the  past  up  to  the  present 
hour.  Creeds  change,  temptations  differ,  old  land 
marks  are  left  behind,  new  perils  confront  us;  but 
always  the  needle  points  to  the  North  Star,  and  always 
are  some  common  men  and  women  following  its  guid 
ance."  These  are  not  the  words  of  a  dilettante  or  a 
man  without  God  in  the  world. 

Catholic  in  the  best  sense,  he  respected  honest  and 
devout  believers  in  the  Church  of  Rome.  At  the 
Ashfield  Academy  dinner,  a  "Forum"  in  which  he 
insisted  that  the  freest  speech  be  allowed,  he  said,  — 
"It  is  folly  to  call  a  community  educated  in  which 
such  an  organization  as  the  A.  P.  A.  can  spread  widely. 
Its  members  have  not  learned  the  first  lesson  of  good 
citizenship."  He  recognized  the  Catholic  Church  as, 
on  the  whole,  an  important  power  for  good  in  our 


38  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON 

country.  When,  some  dozen  years  since,  the  Holy 
Ghost  Hospital  for  Incurables,  presided  over  by  Grey 
Nuns  from  Montreal,  was  established  almost  at  his 
door,  Mr.  Norton  at  once  took  an  interest  in  it.  He 
was  chosen  on  the  Board  of  Managers,  and  interested 
others,  procuring  important  financial  help.  He  not 
only  gave  helpful  counsel,  but  frequently  visited  the 
patients,  talking  and  reading  with  them. 

An  instance  of  catholicity  of  mind  most  remarkable 
in  one  of  Mr.  Norton's  temperament  and  breeding 
was  given  me  by  Colonel  Thomas  Went  worth  Higginson. 
Mr.  Norton,  he  said,  had,  within  a  few  years,  told  a 
Western  friend  that,  if  his  life  were  to  be  lived  again, 
he  should  like  to  live  in  Chicago,  because  he  seemed  to 
see  working  there,  through  the  vulgarity  and  commer 
cialism  necessarily  found  in  a  young  and  prospering 
American  town,  a  power  for  good,  which  would  in  time 
come  to  its  own.  I  suppose  he  meant  that  strong 
loyalty  that  makes  its  dwellers,  like  toiling  fathers, 
desire  that  the  young  Chicago  should  have  every  advan 
tage  and  accomplishment  that,  perhaps,  they  had  not. 

By  years  and  in  bodily  strength,  with  some  intru 
sive  ailments,  old  age  came  upon  Mr.  Norton  after  his 
threescore  and  ten,  but  to  some  of  his  friends  his  mind 
seemed  freer,  and  his  spirit  even  sweeter  and  more 
cheerful.  With  his  friend  Longfellow,  he  assumed  that 

The  night  is  not  yet  come ;  we  are  not  quite 
Cut  off  from  labors  by  the  failing  light. 
For  Age  is  opportunity  no  less 
Then  youth  itself,  though  in  another  dress. 


TWO  ADDRESSES  39 

He  had  modestly  withdrawn  from  duties  in  the 
college,  but  his  memory,  judgment,  taste,  as  well  as 
his  sight  and  hearing,  were  spared  to  him  for  another 
ten  years.  He  set  them  to  work  on  new  tasks,  and 
they  answered  his  call.  His  hospitalities  to  body  and 
soul  went  on.  One  of  his  kind  customs  for  many 
years  was,  at  Christinas,  to  invite  the  students  who 
could  not  go  home  to  gather  at  his  delightful  house 
for  an  evening.  He  could  not  go  to  Ashfield  in  his 
last  summer,  but  bore  the  people  and  institutions  of 
that  time  alwajrs  in  mind,  and  sent  greetings  and 
helpful  advice  in  their  affairs. 

During  the  last  summer  he  grew  weaker,  and,  when 
suffering  in  the  dry  heats  of  August,  his  first  thought 
was  to  send  to  the  Holy  Ghost  Hospital,  offering  to  put 
electric  fans  into  the  wards  at  his  own  expense. 

With  autumn  his  strength  failed  rapidly,  but  he 
could  enjoy  and  critically  follow  thoughtful  books,  as 
those  of  the  younger  Darwin  and  Morley,  and  he  dic 
tated  good  letters  to  his  friends. 

Some  of  us  remember  how  our  American  pride  was 
rightly  stirred  when,  in  the  fearful  hurricane  at  Samoa, 
the  officers  and  crew  of  the  United  States  warship 
Trenton,  with  death  before  their  eyes,  cheered  the 
British  corvette  Calliope  as  she  steamed  past  them 
out  to  the  safety  of  the  open  ocean.  That  high-hearted 
act  is  recalled  by  the  last  sentence  of  a  cheerful  and 
friendly  letter  sent  by  Norton  from  his  bed  but  fifteen 
days  before  his  death,  to  Colonel  Higginson,  his  senior 
by  four  years.  ...  "I  send  a  cheer  to  you  from  my 


40  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON 

slower  craft,  as  your  gallant  three-master  goes  by  it 
with  all  sails  set." 

He  died  quietly  on  the  21st  day  of  October,  but  a 
few  weeks  before  his  81st  birthday  should  have  been 
celebrated. 

When  we  consider  how  on  the  waters  of  Life  the 
consequences  of  each  choice  of  word  or  act  spread 
outward  in  widening  circles,  still  going  on,  we  feel 
that,  in  this  world,  surely,  his  spirit  lives  and  moves 
—  and  this  is  the  only  part  of  the  universe  which  we 
know. 

For  each  true  deed  is  worship :  it  is  prayer, 
And  carries  its  own  answer  unaware. 
Yes,  they  whose  feet  upon  good  errands  run 
Are  friends  of  God,  with  Michael  of  the  sun. 


CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON 

AN  ADDRESS  DELIVERED   BEFORE  A  GENERAL  MEETING 

OP  THE  ARCHAEOLOGICAL  INSTITUTE  OP  AMERICA 

IN  TORONTO,  DECEMBER,  1908 

BY 
WILLIAM  FENWICK  HARRIS 


CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON 

PROFESSOR  NORTON  was  fond  of  repeating  this  story: 
One  day  he  was  seated  at  a  public  dinner  next  to 
William  Hunt,  a  man  who,  as  Mr.  Norton  expressed 
it,  possessed  a  command  of  singularly  piquant  pro 
fanity,  which  he  had  inherited,  not,  however,  from  his 
father.  Some  discretion  is  necessary  in  repeating  the 
anecdote.  In  a  pause  in  the  dinner,  Norton  drew  from 
his  pocket  a  smaU  piece  of  Japanese  artistry.  Passing 
it  to  his  neighbor,  he  asked  if  it  was  not  beautiful. 
"Beautiful!"  cried  Hunt  in  great  excitement;  "why, 
Norton,  that  is  the  Damned  Ultimate!"  The  expres 
sion,  unnecessarily  expressive  though  some  may  hold  it 
to  be,  describes  perfectly,  I  think,  the  effort  of  Norton's 
whole  life.  It  was  Howells,  if  my  memory  is  correct, 
who  said  of  him  that  of  all  the  men  of  New  England 
he  had  met,  Norton  was  the  one  who  had  done  the 
utmost  possible  with  what  Nature  had  given  him. 
Truly  his  struggle  was  always  to  live  up  to  the  advice 
Peleus  gave  to  his  valiant  son  when  he  was  setting  out 
for  the  Wars, — 

alkv  apLarev€tv  KOI  vTr€ipo%ov  e/i/iefcu  a\\a)v. 
"  Ever  to  strive  for  the  best  and  to  be  preeminent  over  others." 

And  this  was  united  with  another  quality,  equally 
noble,  a  genius  for  friendship  and  a  willingness  to 
sacrifice  himself  in  the  effort  to  help  any  one  who  was 


44  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON 

worth  the  helping.  Colleague  or  young  student,  great 
man  or  struggling  author,  was  evei  welcome  at  Shady 
Hill,  and  always  treated  with  that  gentle  courtesy  of 
an  older  world,  a  courtesy  that  many  have  marked  in 
Mr.  Norton  as  possessing  the  most  perfect  democracy, 
Thomas  Wentworth  Higginson  once  told  me  that  he 
had  never  seen  any  man  so  treat  all  the  world,  great 
or  small,  as  so  perfectly  his  equal,  never  condescending 
to  the  lowly  nor  subservient  to  the  great.  His  willing 
ness  to  give  so  ungrudgingly  of  his  time  has  greatly 
reduced  the  possible  product  of  his  own  pen;  it  has 
given  to  scholarship  and  letters,  however,  aid  and 
encouragement  not  to  be  estimated.  Numberless 
prefaces  to  books  bear  testimony  of  their  authors' 
debts,  and  ours,  too.  It  is  true,  I  feel  sure,  that  no  one 
man  in  America  has  exerted  a  greater  influence  on  other 
people's  books  than  has  Norton.  Professor  George 
Herbert  Palmer  once  told  me  a  charming  story  which 
well  illustrates  the  desire  to  serve  and  the  kindliness 
of  which  I  have  spoken.  In  preparing  the  text  for  his 
edition  of  the  poet  whoso  namo  lie  bears,  Palmer  found 
it  necessary  to  use  the  first  edition  of  Herbert's  works, 
but  a  copy  was  not  to  be  had,  although  Qua r itch,  who 
is  supposed  to  find  anything,  was  authorized  to  offer 
an  extravagant  price  for  it.  Learning  that  Norton 
possessed  a  copy,  Palmer  with  some  trepidation  ven 
tured  to  ask  if  he  might  use  it  for  a  day  or  so.  Mr. 
Norton  was  leaving  for  his  summer  home  at  Ashficld, 
but  nothing  must  do  but  Palmer  should  take  the  book 
for  the  summer.  When  not  in  use  the  treasure  was 


TWO  ADDRESSES  45 

carefully  locked  away  in  a  safe,  and  was  returned  the 
day  the  owner  came  back  from  Ashfield.  Mr.  Norton 
listened  with  great  interest  to  Palmer's  account  of  the 
profit  he  had  had  from  the  book.  Next  morning  the 
latter  found  a  neat  packet  in  his  hall,  with  a  note  to 
this  effect  in  Mr.  Norton's  exquisite  handwriting  :  — 


DEAR  PALMER:  I  realized  last  night  after  you 
had  gone,  that  this  book  belongs  to  you  rather  than  to 
me.  Will  you  please  accept  it?" 

Another  story,  one  of  many,  illustrates  the  same 
qualities.  A  young  instructor  in  Cambridge  was 
keenly  anxious  to  possess  a  certain  book  of  rarity  and 
price.  Norton  had  a  copy,  and  knew  the  younger  man's 
desires.  Meeting  the  instructor  one  day  upon  the 
street,  Norton  remarked  quite  casually,  "I  have  just 
seen  a  copy  of  your  book  at  the  Cooperative,  and  at 
a  very  reasonable  price."  No  time  was  lost  in  the 
purchase.  It  was  only  long  afterwards  that  the  happy 
possessor  realized  how  strange  it  was  that  such  a  book 
should  be  in  such  a  place  at  such  a  price. 

The  world  at  large  saw  in  Norton  a  stern  critic  of 
all  that  was  ignoble,  and  failed  to  recognize  the  genial 
urbanity  that  was  his.  Between  Europe  and  America 
and  the  great  men  of  both,  he  served  as  literary  ambas 
sador  extraordinary  and  plenipotentiary.  When  the 
treasures  of  the  great  chest  which  stood  in  his  library 
are  published  we  shall  know  how  well  he  served  in  this 
capacity. 

Norton  had  graduated  in  the  Harvard  class  of  1846 


46  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON 

with  Francis  J.  Child,  George  Martin  Lane,  and 
George  F.  Hoar.  He  "highly  distinguished''  himself 
in  Greek  and  Latin,  and  " excelled"  in  political  econ 
omy,  technical  official  phraseology  of  the  day, 'which, 
strange  to  say,  really  shows  some  prescience  of  the 
student's  future  life.  His  early  experience  and  travels 
in  the  service  of  an  East  India  house  gave  him  that 
practical  businesslike  directness  which  always  served 
him  well.  Travel  in  Europe,  brief  teaching  in  Cam 
bridge,  writing  his  volume  of  ''Considerations  on 
Some  Recent  Social  Theories,"  editing  his  father's 
works,  further  travel  in  Europe,  brought  him  to  one 
of  the  greatest  influences  of  his  life,  —  John  Ruskin. 
It  was  Ruskin,  I  think,  more  than  his  travels,  which 
turned  him  to  Italian  art.  A  scene  is  reported  where 
Ruskin  and  Norton  were  both  present ;  Norton  ex 
pressed,  as  was  his  way,  a  pronounced  opinion  on  a 
technical  point  in  Italian  art.  "How  presumptuous, 
Charles,"  cried  Ruskin.  "You  have  no  right  to  an 
opinion  on  such  a  subject !"  But  continued  study  and 
observance  of  the  relations  of  art  and  humanity  soon 
gave  him  a  right  to  opinion  on  almost  any  of  the 
larger  subjects  connected  with  Italian  art.  From 
these  years  began  his  study  of  Dante,  in  which  he  was 
ever  perfecting  himself.  It  is  in  this  field  that  he 
accomplished  the  most  in  minute  as  well  as  large 
study ;  it  is  as  a  student  of  Dante  that  he  is  best  known 
abroad,  and  it  is  as  Dante's  translator  that  his  ulti 
mate  fame  will  probably  rost.  When  we  undergraduates 
used  to  listen  to  his  comments  on  the  "  Divine  Comedy," 


TWO  ADDRESSES  47 

we  thought  they  were  the  off-hand  sayings  of  inspira 
tion  ;  when  years  later  I  had  the  privilege  of  dropping 
in  at  Shady  Hill  of  a  morning,  I  could  note  the  teacher's 
chair  between  the  window  and  the  fireplace,  surrounded 
by  concentric  rings  of  books  five  and  ten  deep,  as  he 
read  the  canto  and  prepared  his  remarks  for  later 
undergraduates.  The  final  revision  of  his  translation 
shows  that  even  in  his  latest  years  he  was  keeping 
abreast  of  the  most  recent  learning  in  subjects  con 
nected  with  Dante.  His  translation  is  both  the  most 
interesting  and  the  most  scholarly  which  has  appeared. 
He  has  been  thought  of  as  a  dilettant ;  he  was,  how 
ever,  a  great  scholar  who  never  became  a  pedant, 
one  who  could  deal  in  generalities  but  always  support 
his  generalities  by  minute  knowledge.  In  that  he 
was  a  lesson  and  an  inspiration  to  others.  His  deep 
learning  covered  an  enormous  field ;  he  was  polymath 
and  practical  bibliographer ;  specialists  in  many  fields 
had  recourse  to  him  for  information.  His  library 
was  the  Paradise  of  the  bibliophile  as  well  as  the 
scholar,  two  types  of  humanity  not  often  united  in  one 
man,  or  even  resembling  that  loose  union  of  apparent 
opposites  which  Plato  describes  in  the  "  Phaedo."  His 
many-sided  scholarship,  his  power  to  transmute  his 
knowledge  into  terms  of  a  common  humanity,  his 
insistence  on  true  excellence  in  scholarship  and  life, 
were  a  noble  combination. 

In  the  years  after  his  return  from  Europe  he  was  mak 
ing  splendid  preparation  for  that  Professorship  to  which 
he  was  appointed  in  1875.  He  announced  his  subject 


48  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON 

as  "  The  History  of  the  Fine  Arts  and  their  Relation  to 
Literature."  President  Eliot  has  recently  shown,  in 
the  Norton  Memorial  Number  of  the  Harvard  Gradu 
ates1  Magazine,  how  rapidly  the  field  of  instruction 
in  these  lectures  expanded,  and  how,  throughout  the 
whole  series  of  courses,  there  ever  remained  prominent 
that  intimate  association  of  literature  with  the  fine 
arts  which  characterized  the  initial  lectures.  It  was 
to  this  broad  humanity  that  thousands  of  Harvard 
students  attribute  lasting  improvement  in  their  modes 
of  thought,  their  intellectual  and  their  moral  interests. 
He  was  the  scholar  all  the  time;  but  the  boon  his 
students  got  from  him  was  the  glimpse  of  a  true  and 
noble  personality ;  he  dealt  with  the  fine  arts,  but  his 
parish  was  the  wide  world ;  the  facts  one  learned  in 
his  courses,  many  as  they  were,  were  not  the  main 
thing ;  it  was  the  man  and  his  tone  that  were  of  prime 
importance.  Herein  is  the  great  debt  which  not 
Harvard  men  alone,  but  all  Americans,  owe  him,  just 
as  to  Jowett  not  only  Oxford  men,  but  Englishmen  in 
general,  owe  a  benefit  which  shall  surely  not  pass  with 
the  generation  which  heard  the  spoken  word.  He 
dealt  with  important  fractions  of  succeeding  genera 
tions  in  their  youth ;  and  for  years  he  held  up  to  them 
the  highest  ideals  of  life,  of  conduct,  of  taste,  of  culture, 
and  of  politics.  He  filled  a  great  many  vessels  which 
were  sent  out  into  the  world.  It  is  impossible  to 
overestimate  the  influence  which  his  teachings  must 
directly  and  indirectly  exercise  upon  the  men  whom 
he  addressed  and,  through  them,  upon  their  children 


TWO  ADDRESSES  49 

and  their  friends.  No  American  has  had  a  larger  audi 
ence  of  students.  He  dealt  with  the  stream  at  its 
source,  and  his  influence  must  be  felt  all  through  its 
subsequent  course. 

When  the  future  biographer  of  Mr.  Norton  comes 
to  his  task,  he  will  find  one  of  his  most  interesting 
chapters  in  the  foundation  of  the  Archaeological  Insti 
tute  of  America  and  of  the  American  School  of  Classical 
Studies  at  Athens,  the  material  for  which  is  very  rich 
in  the  manuscript  records  of  the  early  days  of  the 
Institute.  In  the  course  of  years,  extracts  from  these 
should  be  published,  when  scholars  of  the  classics  in 
this  country  will  know  fully  the  great  debt  they,  their 
fathers,  and  their  successors,  owe  to  Mr.  Norton. 
Both  the  Institute  and  the  School  were  distinctly  his 
ideas  and  his  alone  in  their  origin,  so  far  as  I  can 
discover  from  searching  of  records  and  from  diligent 
inquiry  among  the  men  of  older  days.  Since  his  time, 
the  records  of  the  Institute  and  of  the  School  have 
become  practically  a  directory  of  scholars  of  the  classics 
in  America,  and  the  work  of  both  Institute  and  School 
may  truly  be  said  to  have  extended  an  influence  far 
beyond  the  classical  field.  It  was  in  1879  that  the 
Institute  was  founded ;  it  was  two  years  later  that  a 
committee  was  appointed  looking  to  the  foundation 
of  the  School.  I  think  the  idea  of  the  School  had  been 
in  Norton's  mind  from  the  beginning ;  he  had  cer 
tainly  thought  much  of  the  Institute  before  1879. 
His  life  and  pursuits  naturally  were  leading  him  in 
the  direction  of  extending  the  field  of  his  studies  and 


50  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON 

his  teaching  in  many  new  lines.  His  interest  in  things 
Greek,  always  great,  was  constantly  increasing.  In  the 
spring  of  1878  his  friend  Lowell  was  in  Athens.  In  that 
same  year  an  appeal  was  made  to  the  British  public, 
by  Professor  Jebb,  to  further  archaeological  research 
by  the  establishment  of  an  English  School  at  Athens 
and  Rome.  The  English  appeal  contained  these 
words:  "The  student  of  Greek  and  Latin  books 
should  be  made  to  feel  that  the  Greeks  and  Romans 
were  real  living  people,  to  have  some  clear  knowledge 
not  only  of  their  laws  and  wars,  but  also  of  their  social 
life  and  of  the  objects  that  surrounded  them  in  their 
everyday  existence,  and  to  enjoy  the  most  beautiful 
creations  of  their  art  in  the  light  shed  upon  these 
from  a  kindred  source  in  the  masterpieces  of  their 
literature."  Lowell's  letters  to  Norton  show  the 
profound  influence  exerted  on  him  by  the  Acropolis. 
I  cannot  help  associating  the  presence  of  Lowell  in 
Greece  and  the  appeal  of  Jebb  in  their  probable  effect 
on  Norton.  At  any  rate,  he  was  soon  endeavoring 
to  find  out  possible  sites  for  exploration  in  Greek 
lands,  and  with  that  well-directed  zeal  which  always 
marked  his  activities,  going  about  among  his  friends, 
asking  them  for  their  cooperation  in  the  formation  of 
a  society  for  the  purpose  of  furthering  and  directing 
archaeological  investigation  and  research.  Such  suc 
cess  did  he  meet  that  in  April,  1879,  a  circular  was 
issued  asking  for  members  for  the  proposed  society. 
Among  others  joined  to  Mr.  Norton  in  signing  the 
circular  were  President  Eliot,  Alexander  Agassiz, 


TWO  ADDRESSES  51 

Professor  Goodwin,  Professor  Putnam,  Martin  Brimmer. 
Within  a  month,  over  a  hundred  members  were  ob 
tained.  I  need  not  give  a  history  of  the  Institute  or  of 
its  work,  for  both  are  well  known.  It  is  of  profound 
interest,  however,  to  see  the  part  played  by  Norton. 
He  was  the  Institute.  "Archaeological  Institute  of 
America?"  queried  one  who  did  good  work  hi  the 
service.  —  "No!"  "Archaeological  Institute  of  New 
England?"  — "No!"  "Archaeological  Institute  of 
Boston?"  —  "No!  Archaeological  Institute  of  Shady 
Hill!" 

Dr.  Holmes,  writing  to  Lowell  on  May  13,  1879, 
said,  not  without  genial  malice  :  — 

"I  had  some  talk  (at  the  Saturday  Club)  last  time 
with  Charles  Norton,  who  is  greatly  interested  in  an 
Archaeological  Association  of  which  he  is  the  moving 
spirit.  It  is  going  to  dig  up  some  gods  in  Greece,  — 
if  it  can  get  money  enough.  I  suppose  they  may  be 
required  in  some  quarters  to  supply  an  apparent  want." 

Charles  Norton  was  indeed  the  moving  spirit,  and 
he  was  truly  supplying  an  apparent  want,  even  if  the 
Institute  has  not  devoted  itself  exclusively  to  gods  in 
Greece.  Meetings  of  the  executive  committee  of  the 
young  Institute  came  with  astounding  frequency,  the 
President  always  in  the  chair,  and  yet  always,  appar 
ently,  doing  most  of  the  talking  and  directing,  though 
surrounded  by  a  generous  body  of  cooperators.  It  is 
astonishing  to  see  how  he  anticipated  practically  all 
the  problems  which  have  faced  the  officers  of  the 
Institute  in  later  years.  He  met  every  situation  with 


52  CHARLES  ELIOT  NORTON 

a  sane  radicalism;   the  dominant  note  was  ever:  — 
"We  want  nothing  but  the  best."    The  best  always 
costs  a  great  deal  of  money,  but  where  the  treasury 
was  empty,  he  still  insisted,  with  far-seeing  courage, 
on  the  best.     "Mr.  Norton  stated/1  a  record  reads, 
"that  he  had  recently  been  to  Providence,  where  he 
had  spoken  before  a  select  audience  in  regard  to  the 
Institute,  and  had  come  back  with  a  thousand  dollars 
promised,  and  prospect  of  more."    The  Institute  was 
intended  to  further  investigation  in  this  country  as 
well  as  in  classic  lands.    The  interest  of  the  founder 
was,  at  that  time,  largely  in  things  Greek,  yet  he  ever 
generously  favored  liberal  aid  to  research  in  America. 
To  the  gratification  of  all  scholars  and  lovers  of  learn 
ing  throughout  the  country,  the  idea  of  the  Institute 
met  with  cordial  cooperation  on  the  part  of  our  leading 
colleges  and  universities.    The  School  at  Athens  was 
almost  immediately  founded.     The  Institute  became 
one  of  the  important  means  for  the  advancement  of 
sound  learning  in  America.    Under  Professor  Norton's 
catholic  direction  the  work  took  a  wide  range ;  investi 
gations  were  conducted  at  Assos  in  the  Troad  and  in 
the  southwest  of  our  own  country;    the  interests  of 
architecture   were    fostered;     the    higher    intellectual 
pursuits  in  the  community  were  aided  by  a  study  of 
the  close  relationship  of  the  art  and  thought  of  the 
ancient  world  to  our  own.     And  more  than  all  else,  he 
started  a  stream  of  American  scholars  to  classic  lands. 
These  men  have  been  inspired  by  an  increased  realiza 
tion  of  the  vitality  and  splendor  of  the  life  and  litera- 


TWO  ADDRESSES  53 

ture  of  the  people  who  dwelt  around  the  Mediter 
ranean.  And  this  inspiration  they  have  brought  back 
to  innumerable  pupils  in  this  land,  so  that  the  seed  of 
Norton's  sowing  has  gone  on,  ever  increasing. 

Such  is  the  debt  which  many  of  us  owe.  A  larger 
body  of  students  owes  a'  broader  debt  to  the  quiet 
scholar  who  sat  in  his  study  and  fearlessly  expressed 
his  opinion  of  the  events  that  were  taking  place  around 
him,  exercising  on  the  public  at  large  the  same  influ 
ence  which,  as  professor,  he  held  over  the  students  who 
attended  his  courses.  That  standard  of  true  excel- 
ence  to  which  he  ever  held  himself,  he  insisted  on  for 
others,  and  men  rallied  about  him  all  over  the  country. 
The  simple  existence  of  such  a  man  with  no  private 
ends  to  serve,  who  is  always  ready  and  willing  to  tell 
his  fellows  the  truth,  and  who  does  it  clearly  and  un 
flinchingly,  is  a  blessing  to  a  community,  demanding 
for  its  ennobling  influence  a  gratitude  that  cannot  be 
overpaid,  stimulating  and  leading  men  to  high  achieve 
ment,  and  maintaining  those  qualities  of  dignity,  of 
skill,  and  of  high  ideals  which  were  so  conspicuous  in 
his  own  personality.  That  such  a  voice,  so  broadly 
heard,  should  issue  from  the  study  of  a  teacher  is  an 
inspiration.  That  is  the  highest  debt  which  scholar 
ship  owes  to  Charles  Eliot  Norton. 


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